A Wisdom Archive on Burning Times

Burning Times - From the Spanish Inquisition thorugh the last instnaces of persecution and witch killings. from circa 1000 Ce through the 17th century.

 
(See also: Burning Times, Pagan, Wicca Pagan Dictionary )

For more dictionary entries, see » burning times dictionary

One of the most brilliant people I've come across thus far is John Taylor Gatto. He's the New York Teacher of the Year whose in-the-know insights set the establishment on its ear every time they are presented.
 
For example, when Daniel and I gave his sisters, who are public educators, copies of Gatto's book Dumbing Us Down the only comment one of them would offer was "sounds like a burned out teacher." Appropriate feedback in this age of cynicism.
 
I am a teacher of adults. I understand the call to teach and what happens when you respond. I have met many teachers, and I hear loud and clear that it's a battle trying to teach anything in the public school system. I also hear how one man did something to help his kids, often defying the system to do it. When you are fulfilling your purpose, for Gatto it is to teach, you don't get burned out. You learn.
 

 
(See also: Indigo Children, Parenting Indigo Children, Adult Indigo, Indigo Children Channeling )

Read more here: » Indigo Children: The Little Red Schoolhouse Turns Indigo  

Meditation is a good stress-reliever. It calms the senses, making the mind inactive and the body, passive. Meditation usually involves concentrating on an object - a flower, a burning candle, a circle, a sound or word, or even one’s own rhythm of breath. Over time, random thoughts peter off. Meditation could also be objectless - just sitting, doing nothing.
 
Most forms of meditation involve turning your attention inward, away from your usual preoccupations and activities. In the process, you make a simple but significant shift from thinking and doing, to just being. With repeated practice the mind begins to settle down and your breathing slows, and you get into a relaxed, peaceful, harmonious state.

 
(See also: Meditation, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Meditation: Do-it-Yourself Tips For Meditation  

Whenever I come across news of violence, be it between individuals, mob factions or between countries, a nightmare usually envelops me, of a return to the days of the caveman. But scenes of the incineration of innocents at Godhra and the retaliatory mass live-burning of hundreds in other parts of Gujarat brought back poignant memories of the Partition massacres.
 
In extenuation, apologists among us could seek to ascribe the latter at least partially to the departing Brits but who do we blame for our own Millennium Abel and Cain act this past week? Only ourselves: In a land which boasts of its sanskriti, sabhyata, and itihaas - noble words uttered from political pulpits especially at election times, what surfaced in the past week is bestiality at its best (worst?).

 
(See also: Peace on Earth, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Peace on Earth: Our Ishta Devata Lives Within Us

for casey
 
should passion be able to melt and liquify
it would be the ink that wrote the words that you spoke at night
it would be the paint that formed the worlds that you found within your mind
should passion be able to convert into electricity
it would be the power surge that crept up the cord and through the chords that split through time and space
giving birth to a new plain in which you found refuge
and your sound tracked us down like bloodhounds led by the chill and breeze
dragged to us against their will
pulled towards the stench of loneliness until they came sniffing at our feet
drooling and licking their chops-and when the rain started to fall we shivered
not from the cold but from the comfort
that feeling you get when you lie in bed and just can't stay still because you want to be sure that this feeling coats your entire being
and so you toss and turn and sigh because you won't
you can't
go comatose until you are sure that every inch has been exposed
and we cried because we were full and had nothing left to do
valleys sunk and spirits rose
and all the squirrels died when the tide came in and buried the floor in an endless river
and were replaced by dolphins who swam amidst the leaves and trees where birds and butterflies flew
and will fly again someday
i hope
and the sound fell like rock pops and broken teeth as they chomped away at our steel souls
and we heard it as a low hum that kept us fully conscious and aware during those last few moments between waking life and dreams
and we were trapped to never change-we were protected by the metal casing
the result of over exposure
over indulgence
over doses of gaseous melancholies that seeped through your eyes
the melancholies that condensed and then cooled into a solid armor
the melancholies that forced us to drown in own own tears despite our frantic efforts to keep our heads above
they blurred our vision and we closed our eyes only to see the dawn of day
light so bright it doesn't burn your eyes
and all was clear
 
 
(See also: Indigo Children, Parenting Indigo Children, Adult Indigo, Indigo Children Channeling )

Read more here: » Indigo Children: Poetry For and About Indigos - For Casey

Emotions are given to us for our benefit. In fact, everything in this world is for our benefit. It is the use or misuse of worldly objects that brings about positive or negative results.
 
Emotions like fear and anxiety are meant to help us. We must fear certain things - like the misuse of weapons, and adharma or wrong action. Without fear we could act irresponsibly and end up hurting ourselves. This is the positive aspect of fear. But when fear becomes excessive or prolonged, or when we fear the wrong things, it can be harmful.

 
(See also: Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul )

Read more here: » Love and Happiness: You Can Refuse To Be Miserable

The theory holds that all flammable materials contain phlogiston (derived noun form of the Greek phlogistos, meaning flammable), a substance without color, odor, taste, or weight that is liberated in burning. Once burned, the "dephlogisticated" substance was held to be in its "true" form, the calx. "Phlogisticated" substances are those that contain phlogiston and are "dephlogisticated" when burned. Since any substance could be observed to burn for only a limited time with limited air (for instance in a sealed container), air was thought ...

Read more here: » Phlogiston theory: Encyclopedia II - Phlogiston theory - Theory

According to the Bible, in Exodus 3:2, Moses heard the voice of God coming from a Burning bush that was not consumed by fire. This occurred after he had to flee Egypt, and was when he was called to go and demand the release of the Israelites. In Byzantine times, Saint Catherine's monastery was built on a traditional site of the biblical event. What was thought to be the original burning bush is now dead, but a bush claimed to be its descendant is on view today. A stylised depiction of the burning ...

Read more here: » Burning bush: Encyclopedia - Burning bush

In many African societies the fear of witches drives periodic witchhunts during which specialist witch finders identify suspects, even today, with death by mobs often the result. Audrey I. Richards, in the journal Africa relates an instance when a new wave of witchfinders, the Bamucapi, appeared in the villages of the Bemba people. They dressed in European clothing, and would summon the headman to prepare a ritual meal for the village. When the villagers arrived they would view them all in a mirror, and claimed they could ident ...

Read more here: » Witch-hunt: Encyclopedia II - Witch-hunt - Africa

Sociology has attributed the occurrence of witchhunts to the human necessity to blame problems on someone. For example, Europe during the periods in which witchhunts prevail relied upon agriculture; if this failed one year, the consequences would very likely be disastrous. Crop failures often correlated with the occurrence of witchhunts, leading sociologists to state that communities often took out their anger of a lack of food on supposed 'witches'. This can be paralleled in more recent examples such as the Nazi use of anti-semitism to appo ...

Read more here: » Witch-hunt: Encyclopedia II - Witch-hunt - Sociology

Witch-hunt - Religious deprogramming. Hundreds of members of the Unification Church who were caught and harangued by deprogrammers complained of interrogation technique similar to that reported during the European witchhunts. Deprogrammers would tell the detainee that he had been "brainwashed" by the "cult" and threaten to hold him indefinitely unless he "realized" he had been brainwashed. Opponents of deprogramming claim that this parallels the tactic of accusing a prisoner of witchcraft and torturing them until ...

Read more here: » Witch-hunt: Encyclopedia II - Witch-hunt - Modern witchhunts

One recent example of a widescale witchhunt in a Western society is the McMartin preschool case. The McMartin preschool owner and employees were accused of child molestation and satanism. The evidence used against them were accounts told by children as young as 3, many whom were repeatedly asked the same question until they claimed they were abused. Many were led to believe the workers were devil worshippers and in the trial the fact that one of the defendants had a high school graduation gown was used as evidence of a satanic cult. In a cla ...

Read more here: » Witch-hunt: Encyclopedia II - Witch-hunt - Day care sex abuse